


Welcome to the City

by ytcompassrose



Series: Hearbeat of the City [1]
Category: NYA (Non-Yog Associates), The Yogscast
Genre: Gen, Urban Fantasy, Urban Magic Yogs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-22
Updated: 2015-03-22
Packaged: 2018-03-19 02:53:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3593664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ytcompassrose/pseuds/ytcompassrose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Xephos is driving his nephew William Strife to the city.  This will be Will's first time out of the magic-free zone surrounding the town he grew up in.  As the city lights come into view, Will drifts off to sleep and has a very strange dream.</p><p>But of course it was only a dream.  Right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Welcome to the City

"Look, You can already see the lights." Xephos said from behind the wheel, nodding toward a glow on the horizon ahead. They had been on the road most of the day now and the sun had set a good hour ago. Xephos had been pointing out stars, planets, and constellations ever since. 

Will sat up in his seat for a better view. That glow... that was where he would build up his new life. That was his future. The suburbs were an ok place to grow up but the city was the pace to... to find your potential. 

To meet your destiny. 

He slumped back, mildly disgusted by the thought. Never going to get that on a billboard. Too cheesy by far. He checked his smartphone. Nope, still no internet.  
The road was slightly uneven. Every time the wheels went over a seam, they made a little noise, a gentle 'babump'. The seams were evenly spaced, so the bumps came regularly. 

Babump, babump, babump.

As he turned to look again at the city glow, the rhythm soothed him. Not that he had been nervous. Not at all. 

Babump, babump, babump.

What would the city be like? So many people. So much more happening, every second of every day. Surely there would be a place for him in all that. If there wasn't, he would do his best to make a place. He could do it. He was good with people. Well, ok, he was good with people on the internet. But that was just because the people back home were... old fashioned. They thought of the future as something that just happened, not as something to grab onto and try to steer.

Babump, babump, babump. 

Xephos was talking again, but Will wasn't really listening, but he caught Honeydew's name. And something about a cat-loving water mage who had just moved in nearby. Yeah, that was another thing. Magic. He'd been brought up to think of it as something vaguely shameful. Something other people, in other places, used for unnatural purposes. No one did magic back home. It just didn't work. In a thaumic void or something. There just wasn't any magic in the... the air maybe. Will hadn't ever studied magical theory, he wasn't sure of the terminology.

Babump, babump, babump. 

Will had never really understood why magic was so bad. Sure, it was... unfamiliar... but surely to those who lived with it around them saw it as normal. If Will could use it to get ahead, he would. He'd have to learn, though. He'd heard it often took a week or so to adjust to it's presence. Maybe Xephos could help. Finding a teacher couldn't hurt. The city lights were getting brighter. Will could see the outlines of a few buildings.

Babump, babump, babump. 

There were Fay in the city. It was in a relatively magic-rich zone, so it was inevitable, really. Fay liked to be where they wouldn't stand out as much against the background magic. He had learned the tricks to avoid them. Don't take gifts from strangers. Don't let people into the house unless you know they're supposed to be there. Don't stay out too late on the solstices or during the full moon.

Babump, babump, babump.

So many people... So many connections... The city almost felt like a living thing in his thoughts. As if in a dream, he saw himself, a little bright red dot among many, looking for a way into the shifting, glowing network around him. Searingly blue ribbons streaked along zigzagged paths, seeming to laugh with joy as his awareness passed over them. Many dots like him, every color of the rainbow, interlinked by thin strands, some straight, some waving, some bright, some dim. A shimmer, like oil on water, like firelight through stained glass, overlaying part of the pattern. Almost fading into the background, green tendrils, with here and there a bud or leaf, spreading gently through all. Deep below, a dark, indistinct cloud, reaching blurry tentacles up to meet the rest. 

Babump, babump, babump.

The rhythm was still there; the entire dreamscape seemed to pulse with it. Will watched as the green opened a leaf to deflect a probing scrap of darkness back to its source. He watched as the ribbons dashed across the network as though time was but an afterthought. He watched as the little colorful nodes spun and danced, making connections, breaking connections. He realized his node was not alone; it was tied to another. A whitish-blue one, that twinkled like a star, familiar and comforting as a candle flame. 

Babump, babump, babump.

Sounds filtered around Will. No distinct words, just a babble of many voices, many lives. Cars turning, horns honking, the ring of a bicycle wheel, the beep of a phone, the creak of a door, the whisper of footsteps, a drunken shout, a blast of jazz..... All part of the rhythm, all moving with the beat.

Babump, babump, babump.

The network was shifting around him. He could feel his heartbeat slowing to match the rhythm that surrounded him -- or was the pulse quickening to match his own? The red node, his, was being pulled to the center of the pattern, the place all the lights were orbiting. There were a few other nodes there, but he couldn't pay attention to them. There was so much to see, so much to feel. Was this magic?

Babump, babump, babump.

He was the beat. The beat was in him and he was broadcasting it. 

Babump, babump, babump.  
ba-tap-bump tap-babum-tap bab-tap-bump.

Something didn't match the rhythm. He couldn't see the source, but the strange, intrusive tapping was still there. 

tap- tap-

Something touched his face, and he opened his eyes, disoriented. He sat up, quickly drawn back to his own body and away from the bright network. "Wha... Xephos?"  
Xephos drew his hand away from his nephew's cheek. "We're here. A pity you missed us entering the city. I know you were looking forward to that, but I didn't want to wake you before. You were smiling."

"I was having the weirdest dream," Will muttered, rubbing his eyes. He heaved himself out of the car and began climbing up the stairs to his uncle's house. He looked back, squinting at the lights, tracing the skyline with his eyes. The rumble of traffic echoed around him. A distant police siren began and wavered above the muffled roar. Even though the car was stopped, Will still felt a steady beat at the edge of his mind.

Behind him, he heard Xephos mutter, "Welcome to the city."


End file.
